Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years: 131. Massachusetts
Sorry, Minutemen.
Kicking off the series is (arguably) the worst team of all time—UMass. Once a proud FCS school who even won a national title in 1998, the Minutemen have struggled mightily ever since they moved up a division in 2012. Now, calling them the worst team of “all time” is a bit harsh since the Minutemen haven’t been in the FBS as long as others, so there is a lot of time for them to improve. What can’t be ignored, however, are the staggering amounts of failure achieved in their first 11 seasons in the FBS.
Best Seasons and Highlights
+------+---------------+------+--------------+--------+
| rank | team | year | resume score | record |
+------+---------------+------+--------------+--------+
| 103 | Massachusetts | 2017 | -30.79 | 4-8 |
| 106 | Massachusetts | 2018 | -37.128 | 4-8 |
| 117 | Massachusetts | 2020 | -38.598 | 0-4 |
| 107 | Massachusetts | 2015 | -40.135 | 3-9 |
| 114 | Massachusetts | 2014 | -42.877 | 3-9 |
| 125 | Massachusetts | 2016 | -51.656 | 2-10 |
| 119 | Massachusetts | 2013 | -63.326 | 1-11 |
| 131 | Massachusetts | 2022 | -67.681 | 1-11 |
| 123 | Massachusetts | 2012 | -69.833 | 1-11 |
| 129 | Massachusetts | 2021 | -70.981 | 1-11 |
| 130 | Massachusetts | 2019 | -82.787 | 1-11 |
+------+---------------+------+--------------+--------+
Overall Score: -12588.1035 (131st)21-103 record
0 conference titles
0-0 bowl record
1 consensus All-American
6 NFL players drafted
If you take out UMass’s covid shortened season (in which they went 0-4), their average season over a 10 year stretch amounts to just 2-10. Impressively, they actually managed to get a consensus All-American, which is 1 more than a lot of schools on this list, some of which have been in the FBS since 1983. 6 players drafted in 11 years isn’t terrible either for the worst team during that stretch. 5 of the 6 came on the offensive side of the ball, so UMass does have a penchant for developing players at the skill positions.
Top 5 Seasons
5. 2014 (3-9 overall, 3-5 MAC)
For a brief moment, it actually looked like UMass was on the upswing. They were coming off back-to-back 1-11 seasons to finish 3-9 in their third year with a 3-5 record in the MAC. Newly hired head coach Mark Whipple was actually returning for his 7th year with the team, having previously served as head coach from 1998-2003, winning the FCS national title in his first year. This team was much better than their record indicated, as they won their three games by double digits, and had one-possession losses to five teams including Colorado and at Vanderbilt.
4. 2015 (3-9 overall, 2-6 MAC)
Once again, Mark Whipple seemed like he was leading this team to a good standing in the FBS, equalling his first year total of 3-9. This time four losses came within one possession, with two of their three wins by double digits. The team had some surprisingly good offensive performances, including 27 points at Notre Dame and 35 points against #19 Toledo. Tajae Sharpe carried the passing attack with 112 catches for 1319 yards, getting drafted in the 5th round by the Tennessee Titans after the season.
3. 2020 (0-4 overall)
Congrats to the 2020 team who simply did not have enough games to be bad in. This would’ve gone down as an all time bad team in not just school history, but college football history. Their average score was 3-40 (no, you read that right, they averaged 3 PPG and gave up 40.2 PPG) with the worst offense and 6th worst defense in the nation. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt because this was a weird covid year and everything was a little wacky, but the fact that this is their third best season of the bunch is pretty telling (of both the UMass football team and my algorithm).
2. 2018 (4-8 overall)
Fans can honestly be proud of these top two seasons. There were no bowl games, but the offense was up there with the best among Group of 5 teams. 2018 might’ve been the best offense in school history (FBS), ranking 36th in the nation with 32.8 PPG. The downfall was their defense who gave up 43 PPG, and this ended up being Whipple’s swan song as he bowed out after his fifth season in his second stint with the team. Andy Isabella had an UNREAL season, catching 102 passes for 1698 yards and 13 TD on his way to being the school’s only consensus All-American. He wasn’t just doing it against G5 competition either. In UMass’ last game of the season they visited #5 Georgia in Athens, and in a game featuring players like Justin Fields, D’Andre Swift, and Jordan Davis, the best man on the field turned out to be Isabella, who had a whopping 15 catches for 219 yards and 2 TDs!!! He went on to be drafted in the 2nd round by the Arizona Cardinals to cap his legendary college career.
1. 2017 (4-8 overall)
While 2018 had a slightly better offense, this was definitely Umass’ best team overall. This was a much more balanced team, scoring almost as many points as they gave up per game with 30.6 and 31.8, respectively. This was seriously a dangerous team, they started 0-6 but only lost by an average of 7 points a game, until finally turning things around in their second half of the season finishing 4-2. Wins included a 55-20 shellacking of Georgia Southern and a 30-27 OT win over Sun Belt champs Appalachian State. They played Tennessee to a tough 13-17 loss on the road and #21 Mississippi State to 23-34. A hyper-efficient offense quarterbacked by Andrew Ford threw for 26 TDs to just 6 INTs, with a 1000 yard receiving season by Isabella and 764 receiving yards from former #2 TE recruit Adam Breneman (who now hosts a successful youtube channel). Future starting corner for the Colts, Isaiah Rodgers, played a key part on defense.
5th Quarter
Is #131 fair for UMass? They haven’t been around for long, but they’ve made the least of it. Still, there are teams who have been around longer and been almost as bad, so one could argue UMass should be a few spots higher for being new. Despite the struggles, they’ve shown they can develop talent on the offensive side of the ball, and we’ll see if Don Brown can solve the defensive side.
Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years - Main Hub
